Fly me to the moon

February 3, 2012

Friday! Friday! Gotta get down on Friday! <insert victory dance here>

It was one of those weeks. On Monday, I was not mentally prepared for the week, AT ALL. Then I blinked and here it is, the end of the week. A pleasantly busy week, without feeling overwhelmed. Although today was a test. At the gym by 4:55 this morning – eek! At work by 6:40 and haven’t stopped moving since. But, like so many times – the tough day was worth it in the end. I had a great end of the week meeting with the boss and progressed on some thoughts I had earlier in the week. Nothing like starting a weekend with a content/satisfied feeling and a glass of red 🙂

I’ve overloaded you this week with things I’ve been cooking lately – so I thought I’d clue you in on some of the lifting exercises I’ve been doing. I got a little bored with just lifting free weights this week, so I decided to go a different route for my lifting last night and use my own body weight and an exercise ball as the challenge. If you remember from a few days ago I shared a link that showed two different exercises – the leg curls and pike to planks. I added a few more exercises to the mix and even though I didn’t do any actual “lifting”, I still got that ultimate shakey muscle feeling in the end!

My Exercise Ball Routine

Pushups – 3×12 sets. For these I had the ball under my legs, although I’ve also done then bracing myself against the ball with my arms. Keeping my abs tight, I lowered and held for three seconds before bringing myself back up. These took a little bit of wiggling around to figure out the best position.

Wall Squats – 3×12 sets – Setting the ball between my back and the wall, do a squat by essentially “rolling” down the wall. Hold the squat for 3 counts then back up slowly!

Plank to Pikes – 3×12 sets – um. Yeah. These? Are a challenge. My “pike” looked more like a little tiny bump. I was shaking on the ball so much after the first 5, these are a definite keeper!

And that’s it! I know it doesn’t look like a lot, but by keeping my core engaged for the entire time, I really feel like my abs got a good workout in the end! ESPECIALLY after those plank to pikes. Yowzas! Do you guys ever get bored with lifting? What do you do to change it up?

With that – it is FRIDAY, ya’ll. That means tomorrow is the weekend. :-O I have big plans for a 6 mile run, visiting with Brandon’s parents, the Heavy Seas Oysters and Beer festival (I’ll forgo the Oysters, but happy to imbibe!), some consignment shopping/antiquing, some cooking, DEFINITELY some eating and some FOOTBALL. Hope everyone has some fun things planned!

xo

ps – 100% crushing on these photos (check out the source, here). The subject? Photos from Life magazine of my beloved Rat Pack.